Auction Results: ‘It was so busy, people couldn’t see the property’
The action in open homes and auction houses shows no signs of slowing down, writes CATHERINE SMITH.
More than 200 buyers crammed into open homes for an immaculately renovated central Auckland house that eventually sold at auction last week for $5.65 million – almost double its 2017 CV.
“It was packed, so busy that people couldn’t actually see the property and we had to bring buyers back one by one,” said Barfoot & Thompson agent Sara Knight, who marketed the fivebedroom house on Woodside Road, Mt Eden with colleague Vern Hines.
“It’s been a busy year, but we knew this one would be particularly popular. It’s the most popular street in Mount Eden – close to the village, a lovely leafy street with good villas. In October we sold another one up the road for $5.6m. Back then, we had 100 people through and seven bidders.
“Some of them we saw again this time, they’re still looking.”
Knight told OneRoof that the house, which is in the attractive double grammar school zone and included extras like three living rooms and a basement cinema, had attracted enquiries from Singapore, Australia and the UK, with one of the 12 bidders taking part in the auction from Australia.
She said she often had viewings for people on behalf of overseas friends or relatives.
Knight said there was a real lack of listings in the $5m-plus price range. “I feel for buyers. There has not been a lot of highquality listings, so when we get one like this, we know it will be huge. We would have 15 or 20 serious buyers with that kind of $5m-plus money.”
Knight has also noticed that since Covid, buyers at the upper end of the market have expanded their criteria: on top of an immaculate renovation, they now look for a pool, kids’ rumpus rooms and space for an office. “People are looking for more spaces and different zones now, they want plenty of room,” she said, adding that with few listings and a surplus of demand, the market was not showing any sign of a winter slowdown.
The demand for high-quality family homes is similarly high outside the double grammar zone, where a stylish, fourbedroom bungalow on Oban Road in Westmere sold under the hammer for $3.72m, nearly twice its CV, after just six days on the market. The listing agent for the property, Ray White’s Luke Crockford, had more than 70 people view the property and received a pre-auction offer within two days of its first open home.
Ray White NZ chief operating officer and national auctioneer Daniel Coulson said five bidders quickly pushed the price nearly $400,000 over the pre-auction offer, calling it “a good reflection of market value”.
“They were all very emotionally invested from the get-go,” he said.
Coulson said there was a small pool of similar quality properties available in the wider Ponsonby area – from Westmere across to Grey Lynn, Herne Bay, St Marys Bay and Freemans Bay.
“Of the 70 looking, I’d say at least seven to 10 buyers are keen to find places in the $3m-plus range. There’s an opportunity for owners to take advantage of buyers willing to spend the money. Some will be looking at the strong sales result and thinking ‘now might be the time to downsize’.”
Developers, too, are shopping with budgets of $5m and more. A tired fourbedroom villa on Claude Road in Epsom, Auckland, sold at auction last week for $5.1m – almost $2m above CV.
The house, which was on the market for the first time in 30 years and marketed by Barfoot & Thompson agents Dylan Tracey and Helen Lam, sits on 938sqm of land zoned for townhouses and apartments – highly desirable to developers for its proximity to Cornwall Park and its double grammar zoning. The Auckland Council rating valuation of $3.2m valued the run-down villa at just $175,000, which last sold in 1991 for $375,000.
Knight said investors were also still active in the central Auckland market, citing the recent sale of a two-bedroom unit in Owens Road, Epsom, where 14 bidders drove the price at auction to $1.638m, more than $500,000 above its 2017 rating valuation of $1.14m.
Another two-bedroom brick and tile unit at Onslow Road, in Mt Eden, had 11 bidders and sold under the hammer for $1.325m, while a rented-out, four-bedroom villa in neighbouring Henley Road sold for $2.32m.